Of course you are ready for DPP 4.0 and AAS, right?!

By 2026, the EU will require Digital Product Passports (DPP 4.0) for many goods and expects companies to structure product data using the Asset Administration Shell (AAS v3) model. The initial product categories — such as batteries, textiles, and electronics — are already defined, with more to follow. By 2030, the DPP requirement will apply to nearly all regulated product groups placed on the EU market, making structured, machine-readable product metadata a baseline compliance feature and industry expectation.

The main driver for this comes from the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which is a central piece of the EU’s Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan.

Of course the implication for companies in the EU is that they should be making strategic investments in software to ready themselves for these changes. This is not only a compliance requirement, but also an opportunity for them to modernize their business and optimize their processes.

In this document, we aim to outline how FORMATION can help with this and what users can expect from us. We see this as a strategic opportunity for customers to do what they should be doing in any case - which is tracking all their goods and assets such that they can leverage data to optimize their business processes. Adding AAS support to the mix is just a sensible way to make sure that everybody in the industry speaks the same language. These requirements not only apply to you but also to your customers and suppliers. Being able to provide and consume AAS type information is going to be critical to your business.

In this article, we outline what is going to happen, how/why this matters to you, and how FORMATION can help you meet these requirements and gain valuable insights and process improvements.

What is changing?

Companies operating in or exporting to the EU will need to expose lifecycle, compliance, and sustainability data in standardized digital formats or risk regulatory penalties.

Common Pain Points

• Metadata complexity – Lifecycle, material origin, and environmental indicators must be tracked and reported across systems and suppliers.
• System integration – Legacy ERP, PLM, MES, and tracking systems rarely support AAS formats natively.
• Resource constraints – Internal teams often lack the capacity or expertise to build standards-compliant infrastructure from scratch.
• Process Digitalization – Not all processes are fully digitized yet and doing so requires investing in change.
• Supplier onboarding – Collecting structured, standards-compliant data from suppliers remains a bottleneck, especially when they lack compatible systems.
• Data provenance and traceability – Proving the origin, transformation, and compliance of materials across the supply chain is complex without shared data models like AAS.
• Rapidly evolving standards – DPP and AAS specs are still shifting, so schemas and integrations need continuous updates to stay compliant.

How FORMATION Supports This Transition

Formation is adding support for selected AAS sub-models into its APIs and backend. This allows you to:

• Store and propagate AAS metadata conforming to AAS where relevant. Simply using FORMATION means you are building a digital passport for your assets as you track them.
• Edit AAS data directly, using Formation’s flexible custom fields feature you can easily add and support all common AAS metadata.
• AAS data & Insights. Once you have this data in FORMATION, it becomes actionable and enables analysis, dashboards, and operational triggers.
• Expose AAS data via APIs and integrations. Our APIs enable building integrations, exporting data, and deep integrations with other systems you use.

These features let you capture and share the data needed for DPP compliance directly within FORMATION. If you’re already using other DPP-compatible tools, FORMATION can integrate with them. Contact us to discuss integration options or plan a workshop suited to your needs.

What is AAS?

The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a digital representation of an asset that organizes metadata in standardized sub-models. As we explored in our Hybrid Tracking deep dive, an asset can be anything that matters in your business: equipment, supplies, goods, products, pallets, containers, nuts and bolts. What you track and at what granularity you track these assets is a business decision. Whatever you decide here, AAS supports interoperability by structuring metadata in reusable, machine-readable submodels.

This helps systems and partners exchange data consistently and reliably. Using AAS metadata ensures your is data machine-readable and complies with upcoming EU standards like the Digital Product Passport (DPP).

The clearest way to explain AAS is with a few example JSON fragments supported by the FORMATION API.

🔹 Asset Information

At the top level in AAS, you can specify meta data common to any asset. The Asset Information model specifies a wide range of fields. This sample shows how you would provide that to FORMATION via the API:

{
  "displayName": "Battery 12 V (BAT123456)",
  "specificIds": [
    { "name": "SerialNumber", "id": "BAT123456", "type": "SerialNumber" }
  ],
  "batchId": "BATCH20250322",
  "keywords": ["battery", "Li‑Ion", "12 V"],
  "properties": {
    "productionDate": "2025-03-22T00:00:00Z"
  }
}

🔹 Nameplate Submodel

Nameplate information is an important part of equipment. Often this information is engraved on a metal plate. The information you find there is of course subject to standards and rules and will include a mix of general fields like model and manufacturer and equipment/type specific fields like voltage or frequency. This information is critical to engineers and users working with or installing the equipment.

Example:

{
  "manufacturerId": "urn:epc:id:sgln:4012345.00001.0",
  "manufacturerName": "Acme Batteries GmbH",
  "model": "Li‑Ion 12 V",
  "productionBatchId": "BATCH20250322",
  "serialNumber": "BAT123456",
  "productionDate": "2025-03-22T00:00:00Z",
  "countryOfOrigin": "DE",
  "properties": {
    "powerRating": "1.5 kW",
    "voltage": "400 V",
    "frequency": "50 Hz",
    "efficiencyClass": "IE3",
    "ipClass": "IP55"
  }
}

🔹 Status Submodel

The Status Submodel provides a snapshot of the current condition and operational state of an asset. It captures key indicators such as inspection results, usage metrics, and visual evidence — all of which are essential for maintenance planning, warranty tracking, and compliance reporting.

{
  "inspectionStatus": "passed",
  "sealIntegrity": true,
  "measurements": [
    { "name": "runtimeHours", "value": 2400, "unit": "h" }
  ],
  "photoUris": [
    "https://example.com/photos/BAT123456/condition-2025-05-14.jpg"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "state": "idle",
    "lastMaintenance": "2025-04-01"
  }
}

Action Meta data

The Action Metadata submodel captures why and how a change occurred — linking lifecycle events to business context. Whenever data is added or updated in FORMATION, you can include Action Metadata to record references to business processes, current product states, and any relevant documents.

This submodel is essential for aligning with EPCIS and DPP 4.0 requirements, where changes in asset status must be traceable to supply chain events (e.g., receiving, shipping, transforming).

{
  "bizTransactionIds": {
    "deliveryNote": "DN-9834571",
    "purchaseOrder": "PO-456789"
  },
  "bizStep": "urn:epcglobal:cbv:bizstep:receiving",
  "disposition": "in_use",
  "properties": {
    "operatorId": "USR-1029",
    "location": "warehouse-A"
  }
}

Including Action Metadata on updates ensures your asset records reflect real-world operations and remain compliant with DPP and AAS expectations. This metadata travels with the asset, making downstream reporting and traceability much easier.

Future Compatibility by Design

FORMATION has a flexible and extensible data model. This is what has enabled us to add AAS metadata recently. Additionally, this also enables us to support the growing number of AAS submodels as they become relevant or important.

FORMATION is committed to staying forward-compatible with the evolving standards landscape. Our development priorities include:

• Support for new and evolving AAS sub-models
• Data model flexibility to accommodate future EU mandates
• Maintaining clean API access so your DPP and digital twin data flows smoothly into reporting or partner systems

Unlike other platforms that lock you into a rigid schema, Formation’s infrastructure is designed to adapt as EU regulations develop.

What to Look for in a Future‑Ready Platform

Next Steps

FORMATION is ready for DPP 4.0 and AAS. Want to prepare your business for 2026 and beyond?

Book a discovery workshop — our hands-on format to assess your needs, recommend the right FORMATION modules, and align with your partners and tools.

Also, tell us about your thoughts on this. Are we covering all your needs? What else would you want in our product or APIs? How can we help you prepare for this better?